kurosaki
by LottieBeast
Summary: The little girl known as Kurosaki Ichigo goes to sleep. She doesn't wake up for a month and a half (she's not the same when she does, but nothing really changes). Fem!Ichigo, semi SI-Ichigo
1. zero

**This story is me. Procrastinating on working on Amnesiac because I'm stuck. Also I'm not very sure how long this will be because I haven't read _Bleach _in it's entirety (or very much at all really in a long time) but this idea (and one other) just. Won't leave me alone.**

**This is literally all I have written so far. Just fyi.**

**This is a fem!Ichigo and an SI sort of, but Ichigo isn't going to be fundamentally different or anything. So basically just Fem Ichigo with a little extra.**

**TLDR; Sporadic (as hell) updates. I'm being lazy. SI-fem!Ichigo not that the SI thing matters too much.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _Bleach_, that honour goes to Tite Kubo.**

* * *

_"You have to carry on like you will;_

_otherwise, you can't carry on at all."_

_\- Rainbow Rowell, Carry On_

* * *

Watching Ichi-nee hurry around the kitchen, her hair a mess, wearing only a tank top and her male uniform pants _(she's late, they're all late)_, the twins are silent. Ichigo has been taking care of them over the last few months, instead of Dad (who they haven't really seen), and she hasn't really had the time or energy to really figure some things out yet.

Like cooking.

A minute later there's a plate of scrambled eggs on the table to share between them, five pieces of toast (two seem fine, two are burnt but not terribly, and one looks _inedible_\- it actually crumbles into blackened ash after a few seconds, right before their eyes), and two picture perfect glasses of milk. Ichi-nee looks scarily close to tears, staring at the fruits of her labours, and mutters a quiet _"sorry"_ when the twins only stare at the food and then her in silence. The ten-year old sighs, her breath shaky as she pushes her hair out of her face and begins to sag, looking so _defeated_ that the twins move in synchrony, clapping.

_"Itadakimasu," _they chorus. Yuzu claims the least-burnt burnt piece of toast, while Karin grabs a burnt piece at random. They both scrape eggs onto the bread and take bites under Ichigo's startled amber gaze.

It's terrible. The eggs are sort of slimy and lukewarm, meaning they weren't entirely cooked when Ichigo'd taken them off the stove, but she'd seasoned them at least. They're also not gritty or rubbery like they'd been the last few times, so they're an improvement, mostly.

Karin wishes they hadn't run out of cereal, though.

"Thanks, Ichi-nee," Yuzu says quietly, offering Ichigo a small smile and placing her food down on her plate to reach for the milk.

"Yeah, thanks," Karin echoes after a second. Ichigo stares at them for a moment with unsettlingly shiny eyes before she firms up her expression and nods.

"Right. Okay. I'm gonna get dressed. Finish up and then do the same yeah? Then I'll walk you guys to school," Ichigo instructs, walking out of the kitchen without eating anything or waiting for a reply.

"This is terrible," Karin voices after Ichigo is out of ear shot, staring down at the remains of the food. Yuzu isn't sure if she actually means the food, but the six year old isn't sure the distinction really matters, either, at this point.

"Nee-chan's doing her best, and it's better than last time," she points out loyally, earning a reluctant nod of agreement from her twin before they both hop down, scraping their food into the trash and then placing their dishes in the sink.

* * *

_The little girl known as Kurosaki Ichigo wakes up choking on a shriek, her head feeling like it's being split open with an axe, her heart __thundering in her chest, her body ill-fitting and unfamiliar. _She wakes up and she is both Ichigo and an unfamiliar woman. _She wakes up and falls out of bed, making her way out of her room and to her parents' room, her three year old legs unsteady, her face dripping snot and tears, flushed a red as vivid as blood as she struggles to breathe._

_"It hurts. It hurts_ it hurts- _please please please- it hurts, I can't-" the little girl sobs wretchedly outside of her parents' room, unable to open the closed door, somehow unable to knock, but desperately wanting her Mom and Dad- wanting her Mom more than anything._

_The door bursts open soon enough though, and she sways dizzily in place as gentle hands grip her biceps, breathing too shallowly to support her tiny lungs and vision blurry from tears and pain. Her ears are ringing, and she feels overloaded with mental and emotional stimulus she _doesn't understand.

"Mom," _she choked, reaching out blindly as she hears her precious person ask whats wrong as though she's underwater. But she can't answer, and her fingers scrabble for something to hold onto, everything feeling fractured in her head. "Mom- _Mom, please-!"

_Kurosaki Ichigo goes to sleep and doesn't wake up for a month and a half._

* * *

_When she dies, she's a broken and wretched thing, an over-used stress ball torn open at the seams, frothing at the mouth like a mad-dog and choking to death on her own leash as she soars through 75 stories of open air._

_She dies, and she's fine with that. Really, she is._

_When she wakes up, she's just as torn up but now she's not the only person who will die if she goes flying again, and she can't, anyway. Gravity doesn't work like that here in the mental scape, and she knows that because she's in the open air _now _and going nowhere. A small consciousness is curled up in her "hands", writhing in agony from coming into contact with the periphery of her "at rest" emotions._

_S__he feels bad for causing little Ichigo harm, but she's as calm as she's going to get, even though her "vision" is still that reddish teary haze it was before she died. As she tries to figure out what she's supposed to do, she carefully layers the idea of _safety-warmth-it-will-be-okay _around the writhing mind, she hopes that it will help as she lets it drift away from her a little._

_Not too far, because who knows where Ichigo would vanish to, but far enough that they're no longer in danger of mixing accidentally._

_She has... Options__. There are things she can do._ Technically.

_And as a vague _something _twitches in Ichigo's soul (also hers by default because they're the same person), a memory strikes her and she knows what to do. Maybe._


	2. one

**This chapter is _full _of lines and time skips. Sorry if that's annoying or whatever, but it's basically one huge time skip that's canonically covered with flashbacks and stuff which I find dumb so I've got to include it somehow.** **Chad kind of dominated it, though.**

**I didn't get around to adding Orihime's intro here, which I'd planned to, and I don't know if I'm going to at all or just have that explained via Ichigo and Rukia and that mess with Orihime.**

**Sorry about that false start, I sort of jumped the gun and published before I was 100% done.**

* * *

Recently eleven years old, Kurosaki Ichigo chokes and reels on the ground of her bedroom, curled with her hands over her vulnerable and hurting midriff as she struggles with the aftermath of the _axe kick_ that'd greeted her as she woke up, as well as an enthusiastic yell from the utter _bastard_ she's supposed to call her father.

Staring up at the man, who's posed like he'd done something _heroic_, boasting about how he'd successfully ambushed his _sleeping child_, saying something about how she needs to be more aware of her surroundings, Ichigo feels any positive emotions that'd managed to cling onto her for her "dad" shrivel up and _die_, betrayal and hurt flooding into the spaces left behind.

She'd been expecting it to a degree, with what little she could "remember" from _Before_, but…

_Stubbornly keeping firm as Yuzu and Karin hold onto her for dear life in the rain. A casket being lowered into the muddy, gaping earth. A fleeting glance and a distant, silent back. Eyes watching her like they _know_ and flinching away when she gets close. Constant absence, the struggle to keep her sisters clothed, fed and safe, if not happy. Karin and Yuzu waking up from nightmares, calling for Mom and lashing out when only Ichigo is there for them._

…No, she should have known better than to get her hopes up.

A familiar but foreign anger, partially left over from Before and also new, tries to choke her as her head and chest ache, but she pushes that down for now. Well, she tries to push it down- her foot lashing up to "stomp" between the man's legs with as much force as she can lever from the floor, her hips and her knee is completely out of her control. Really.

The man topples back and away from her with a high pitched sound as Ichigo heaves herself upright before glancing at the clock on her nightstand, ruthlessly putting aside her feelings of _betrayal-resentment-disappointment-resignation._ 6:02 AM. Almost a half hour before she can normally manage to wake up, which actually isn't that bad. She'd been meaning to get up earlier.

She pushes gingerly to a stand, one hand protectively held over her abdomen as she starts to make her way out of her still dark room. If, on the way, she stomps on that same spot again on "accident" when she "stumbles", and her foot and ankle grind down as she "tries to regain her balance", she's not going to complain.

Stopping briefly in the bathroom to do her business, brush her teeth and shower, Ichigo then makes her way into the twins' room to check up on them. They don't really need to get up for another half hour, as they don't take as long as her to get ready (they're both morning people and it's _terrible_) and they don't need to bathe in the mornings due to doing so at night (it makes them sleepy), but checking up on them wouldn't go amiss.

Karin is where Ichigo had expected her to be- tucked in bed, limbs held close and quietly snoring away. Her blankets are mussed like Yuzu had been in her bed again, but her other little sister isn't anywhere in the room that she can see. Ichigo checks beneath the beds for good measure and finds her indeed gone.

With a small frown, she tucks the blankets more securely around the still sleeping twin and leaves the room. The bastard isn't in her room when she goes in to get at least most of the way dressed for school, and as she makes her way downstairs and then into the kitchen to try her hand at making breakfast again (why is it so _hard_?) she doesn't see him anywhere.

She does find Yuzu, though, sitting at the kitchen table and flipping through their Mom's recipe book like Ichigo had been doing every morning to try and figure out where she'd been going wrong.

"Yuzu?" She questions, coming up behind her sister and planting a hand on the back of the girl's chair, leaning over to investigate what specifically she's looking at. Her hair, still damp and a little drippy, falls over one shoulder and drops onto the exposed skin between Yuzu's neck and shoulder and she jumps with a tiny squeak.

Ichigo laughs a little and tucks the long orange strand back again, still watching her little light-haired sister.

"Ichi-nee, I- Can I help make breakfast?" She asks quickly, not quite looking Ichigo in the eyes until she finishes asking. Blinking at her sister in surprise, Ichigo takes a second to think about what she'd do if she said yes or no before recognizing the look in Yuzu's eyes.

She's not going to take _"no"_ for an answer.

"Alright, but you have to listen, okay? Don't break the rules," Ichigo relents before hauling her sister up and turning to place the surprised girl to sit on the counter. Dropping the recipe book into her Yuzu's lap, Ichigo gives her a small grin and crosses her arms. "You're going to read me the recipe for now, okay?"

"Okay!" Yuzu nods, enthusiastic if not a little disappointed about not being involved in the actual cooking. But her sister is only six, though she'll be seven this year, and Ichigo isn't going to let her manage heat sources or knives. Maybe she'll get to wash things and crack a few eggs, but for now she's not going to do much.

* * *

Making her way through the streets of Karakura, Ichigo frowns as her hands tighten around the grocery bags, glancing around to try and find the source of the noise she can only faintly hear. It sounds almost like a dog and someone talking gibberish, but that might just be because she's so far from the source.

Making her way closer to a side street, Ichigo's frown deepens, tilting her head to try and hear better. Pausing on the side, she leans over to look more deeply into the darkened street, spotting some big guy with dark skin and fluffy dark hair, sitting on a crate and talking in something that she can faintly recognize as a mix of spanish and japanese to the fluffy grayish-black dog attached to his arm by the teeth.

Ichigo can't really look away as she watches the guy try to coax the dog into letting him go with some dog food, his movements gentle and calm, if not a little confused and disappointed.

Her face lifting into a small twitch of amusement, Ichigo continues on walking, satisfied that she's solved the mystery.

"_Hey_, Ichigo!" A familiar voice calls to Ichigo as she gets closer to home, causing her to look up with a slightly startled look to spot Arisawa Tatsuki, who's walking in her direction with a cautious but slightly annoyed look on her face.

"Tatsuki, what's up?" She questions, shifting the bags in her hands before nodding her head in the direction of her home. "Let's talk and walk, I need to get this stuff home."

"Alright," the black-haired girl accepts easily, stepping to walk alongside the orangette, they make their way down the street. "Are you ever going to come back to Karate? It's boring without you there, there's no longer any _challenge_," she complains, despite that Ichigo hasn't really taken Karate since she was seven.

"I don't know," Ichigo admits after a pause. "I don't know if I'm going to have time, or if I really want to. The bastard's being flakey lately and Karin and Yuzu are still kind of iffy." She'd never really enjoyed all of the rules to Karate, anyway, and with everything she remembered from her past life, she probably couldn't follow them. Too angry, too willing to do whatever she needs to win.

"How are they doing?" Tatsuki asks, catching onto that trail and leaving the subject be for now.

"Better, I think," she replies. As they get closer to the clinic, Ichigo hitches her bags up a little before slowing down, looking over at Tatsuki seriously. "Tatsuki, what's wrong?"

"I… nothing, really," she shakes her head but Ichigo continues staring. "Just… Will you be coming back to school, after break?" Ichigo can tell that's not what she'd wanted to ask, but the expression on her face discourages her from insisting Tatsuki really tell her.

"Yeah," Ichigo confirms after a second.

After what'd happened to her Mom, Ichigo had started to skip classes and fall back in the class rankings, despite that she'd once consistently scored in the top 5. It wasn't hard to do, as _Before_ she'd been a college student stumbling her way around for a major and racking up debt, but after that night, she'd lost motivation.

She still can't quite find that motivation, without her Mom's supportive influence, but she's not going to tank her second chance. She'll figure her way back into academics.

Tatsuki mumbles something under her breath uncharacteristically and then bolts, honestly startling Ichigo, and then she vanished completely as Ichigo tries to figure out what she'd heard.

_"I'm glad you're feeling better."_

* * *

Walking towards Mashiba Junior High, Ichigo curls her lip in a snarl as she hears someone begin to taunt her again from some side street. Not bothering to look over, she tightens her grip on her school bag and continues walking. She's already late for school on the first day because she had to walk the twins to school, not that she really minds, but she doesn't want to be even later than she already is.

"Oi, don't ignore us! Hey, kid, what's with that hair? Long _and_ orange?" They call, and she hears them come out and begin to follow her. With a low snarl she turns around, bag already lifted and swinging, and the hard surface of it's edge clips the closest guy in the jaw, sending him and his reaching hands falling backwards away from her hair.

_"Don't touch my hair."_

"You little shit!" The guy's partner snarls and lunges at her, and she dodges to the side of one clumsy swing before, out of another side street, one long arm lashes out and a fist slams into the guy's chest, sending him skidding across the road and to the ground when he looses his balance. Blinking in recognition at the figure now next to her, Ichigo recognizes him as the guy who'd been with that stray a few nights ago.

Squinting at the name tag she can faintly see on his chest, she reads the kanji out.

"Yasutora Chado?" She parrots, a little confused at the weird given name, before shaking that off to try and look the guy in the eye. It's a little hard, as his hair mostly covers them, but she manages to meet one of them. "Thanks, I guess- wait, you go to Mashiba?" She questions after recognizing the uniform that's nearly identical to her own, save a few personal flares he's given it.

"I'm supposed to."

"Are you skipping already?"

"No," he replies, giving her a look as though to call her a hypocrite before elaborating. "I got lost."

"Lost? Well, tag along with me, I go to Mashiba too. We can walk together."

"... Thanks."

"No problem." They start to walk in silence, but Ichigo's curiosity gets the better of her a little over halfway to the school. "So, _Chad_," she blithely ignores what she assumes is his reaction to her using his first name, "are you new to Karakura or something? Because Mashiba's the only junior high in this area, and it's a pretty big school."

"Yeah, I lived in Okinawa before," he agrees, "and my name's Sado." She ignores him- they're practically the same name, anyways.

"Well, I'm Kurosaki Ichigo, nice to meet you, I guess."

* * *

She's walking home when she spots the two thugs beating up on someone on the ground. It's hard to see exactly who they're attacking, as they're on the ground and they're clustered pretty tightly for only two people, but they're slamming some pretty decent kicks.

And kicking a person while they're down like that is pretty rude.

The drop kick she unleashes onto the first guy is pretty simple to pull off, as the river bank's sides are pretty steeply inclined and they're lower than her, and the clothesline on the other guy is similarly simple. They take off pretty quickly, revealing their victim to Ichigo's eyes.

"What the hell, Chad?" Looking down at the guy as he sits up on the ground to look out over the river, ignoring the two she'd chased off as they run away with their tails tucked between their legs, Ichigo scowls down at him. It's been about a week since she last saw him, and he looks pretty much the same, so she's certain she's got the right person. Sure, she sometimes messes up identities, but he's pretty distinctive.

"It's _Sado."_

"I don't care about the name of some stupid person- you could have died, you're lucky I was here! You're strong, why didn't you fight back?! I know you can!"

"...I promised," he says after a minute, luring Ichigo to slide down the incline further to come closer and hear him better. "I'd never use my fists for my own sake. I promised my _abuelo_."

_"Abuelo?"_

"It's spanish. It means grandfather. His name was Oscar Joaquin De La Rosa." Ichigo kind of wants to gape- first the spanish, which she'd kind of expected, but _woah, what a name!_ "He was a mestizo, a mexican."

"Yeah, I guessed," Ichigo mutters as she drops down to sit near Sado.

"I lived in Mexico before I moved here."

"You said you were from Okinawa when we met last week."

"Did I?" He asks, turning slightly in her direction, sounding genuinely surprised.

"Yeah," she complains, "but whatever. I'm not gonna bail you out next time, though, if you're just going to take it like that!" She pushes to a stand and makes to walk further down towards the river, but when he laughs, she pauses, looking back. Sado has one hand lifted above his chest, holding onto something within a large fist.

"That thing around your neck. You always wear it, right? Is it something important to you?" She asks, unable to hold back on her curiosity.

"Huh? Yeah. It's important. More important than my life." Staring at the expression on Sado's face, Ichigo frowns and turns back, walking to drop down closer to him, too curious to resist.

"It looks like a coin from another country or something. Is it mexican?"

"Yeah…" He smiles a little, and Ichigo blinks at the expression. Sado then pushes to a stand. "We should go. There's no bigger waste of time than two guys talking beside a river."

_"Hey!"_ She shouts in protest, about to insist she's _a girl, thank you_, but then gets distracted. Blinking in surprise as Sado stands completely, Ichigo narrows her eyes. "Hey, you've got a phone hanging from your belt. Is it yours? It's open…"

"Huh? It isn't. Maybe it belongs to one of those guys." Sado reaches around to pull it off, and Ichigo stands as well to peer at it, feeling the sting of horror at the screen currently displayed. _Call time: 21 minutes, 50 seconds. Who was that listening in?!_ "I guess I should give it back."

"Throw it away!" Ichigo shouts, lashing out with a kick on instinct and sending the phone flying, shattering it to pieces in the process. She manages to completely avoid hitting his hand, which is a relief, but she's kind of worried about the consequences of noticing that phone too late.

"Hey!"

* * *

Hearing the sound of someone getting beaten as Ichigo walks home from school, she pauses in place. Blinking in confusion as she looks around and finds no sign of anybody nearby, she frowns as her eyes finally land on the river bank.

_Probably beneath the bridge, then._

Cursing her hero complex and hopping the divide between the grass and the road, Ichigo begins sliding her way down the incline of the riverbank, she listens carefully to try and figure out what she's going to be walking into. She's not going to back out, and she doubts it's anything too far beyond her, but it's always good to know.

"... Means a lot to you. You said it's a souvenir from Mexico that you value more than your own life. So if you lose it, you'll _die_, right?" Ichigo feels something in her stomach drop and she hurries. _"Then die,"_ Jumping the final bit and rushing around to go beneath the bridge, Ichigo sees some gangster wannabe holding Sado's coin above a pair of wire cutters, poised to mutilate Sado's possession. "You j-_erk_!" Her foot lashes out just in time, slamming into the side of the guy's throat and jaw, sending him flying back a few feet and then into the river, though his lower half kind-of manages to dig its heels in and remain above water.

Ignoring the gasping calls of the guy's lackies, she strides after the guy, dropping her bag off to the side, and snatches the necklace and coin from the guys hand as he does his best to climb out of the river.

"Kurosaki Ichigo of Mashiba Junior High?!" The guy's lackies shriek in unison, catching her attention, because she hadn't quite known she'd had a reputation, but she ignores them, digging through the leader's pockets for his phone, having made a decision as an anger almost uncontrollable pulses in her stomach. She needs to be responsible about this.

"Hey, don't ignore us, dude! And stop rifling through Yoko-chin's pockets!"

Finally managing to find the phone, Ichigo pulls it free and stands, kicking the leader back into the river distractedly amd dialing for emergency services.

"Hello, I need an ambulance," she says, turning back towards the thugs and placing a hand on her hip, her other hand holding the phone to her head. Listening to the operator rather than the thugs, Ichigo scowls as they yell nearby. "Send it to Nishi-Toriya district two, underneath the Onose river bridge," she pulls from memory. "There will be… five guys needing emergency medical assistance." She makes the effort to point at them as she pretends to count them out for the operator, though she'd already catalogued their numbers.

"You're dead!" The guys shout as they rush towards her, and she snaps the phone closed and tosses it aside with a scowl. She doubts they'll be much of an issue as she plants her foot into the nearest guy's face.

* * *

"So, Chad," Ichigo mutters as she lays on the ground in front of Chad, who's still tied to a chair and had just been forced to watch her lay down the law with those low lives.

It hadn't been hard, really, though they'd managed to get a few good hits in, which was annoying. Yuzu would probably be upset with her.

"How 'bout this. You don't hit people for yourself anymore, right? So why don't you hit people to help me. I'll fight for you, and you can fight for me, and neither of us will fight alone anymore. And if there's something you want to protect with your life, like that coin or something else, I'll protect it with mine, as well."

Lifting a hand to point it into Chad's face as he stares her in the eyes, she scowls.

"Is it a promise?"

"...Okay, you got it. It's a promise." She offers him a grin and rolls around onto her stomach, and then pushes to her feet, looking around on the ground until she finds the wire cutters from before on the ground, half beneath one of the morons she'd trashed.

Walking back to Chad, she uses the wire cutters to chew through the cables, and then offers Chad the coin when he stands up, which she'd been clutching in her hand throughout the entire fight. There are indents along the insides of her fingers and along her palm, and they sting painfully, but that's negligible.

"Let's head back to my place, we can get patched up there," she offers, and he accepts with a nod, swaying a little on his feet as he stands to his entire height. Taking the coin from her and wrapping the chain around his neck, he rubs his thumb over it as they make their way out from under the bridge then up the bank.

"Do you live nearby?" He eventually asks as they make their way down the road.

"Sort of?" She lifts a hand and sways it back and forth. "Close enough, at least."

"Thanks for the help, Kurosaki-"

"Just call me Ichigo. After all, I'm going to be calling you Chad, so it's only fair," she dismisses the formality. Inwardly, she's a little high on the idea that she's got a friend, but she's doing her best to ignore the bubbling emotions.

"My name's-"

"Sado, yeah, I got that. But Chad can be your nickname, right?" She offers, kind of set on calling him Chad either way. Sado feels like more of a mouthful, somehow.

"... Fine, whatever. You'll probably keep calling my Chad whatever I say, won't you?"

"Yeah, not gonna lie. Sado's a mouthful." He makes a sound like he wants to argue with her, but they're reaching the clinic now, so she waves him off. "We're here- Kurosaki Clinic." She doesn't hesitate in opening the front door, which is a little bit of a mistake, because the bastard lashes out with a drop kick the instant she's in clear view. Dropping into a crouch reflexively, Ichigo feels horror as she realizes Chad had been right behind her, so she turns as quickly as she can manage.

Chad has her DNA donor by the ankle, and they're both seemingly stunned speechless.

"Toss him down the road, will you, Chad?" She asks, feeling satisfied when he does so without hesitation. She then waves hin inside, following behind quickly enough. _"Tadaima!"_

_"Okaeri, _Ichi-nee- What happened?!" Yuzu cries out as she and Karin come into view from the direction of the living room. Ichigo waves them all towards the door leading into the clinic.

"Got into a bit of a fight, made a friend, brought said friend home. Chad, these are my sisters Karin and Yuzu," she doesn't quite get to make proper introductions, as Yuzu is trying to physically climb up her to get a look at her face. "Yuzu, calm down, I'm fine."

"Nee-chan, you look like you got kicked in the face," Karin comments from the side in a bland tone.

"I did," she admits easily before noticing how Chad had ground to a halt. "Chad? Oi."

"-Nee?" He questions in a monotone voice that Ichigo interperets as surprise.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot to say. I'm actually a girl. I meant to tell you last week but got distracted. Not like it really matters though."

Chad shakes his head like a dog shaking off water after a second.

"Alright, Ichigo." She offers him a toothy grin as he shows no sign of treating or addressing her differently.

"Now c'mon, lets get some bandaids on our faces, before Nurse Yuzu bursts into tears."

_"I won't!"_


	3. two

**In case nobody noticed, I'm writing this alongside the manga, as I don't have access to the anime (no data or patience). That said, translations are a little iffy between all of them so sometimes I'm taking guesses (like with _bakudo_, which you'll probably notice). Please tell me if something seems off or wrong, and I'll look it over to see what I can do.**

**I hope the fight scenes here make sense and aren't terrible. I'm using creative thinking to figure things out and guess at what movements are taking place between manga panels, as well as making assumptions on what the characters are likely to do or how they'll act.**

**Thanks everyone who's favoriting and following, and especially those few reviewers; _gruntsbreeder, Aihi8 and Nariel Helyanwe, _it means a lot.**

**And, side note, the fact that Ichigo's a SI isn't _that much of a thing._ Not right now, at least. Don't expect to see too much of anything in direct relation to that until around the time that Ichigo's hollow starts becoming an issue, because that's the only real idea I've got around that. I have a few other ideas as well, but nothing concrete yet, so don't read too much into subtext about that sort of thing.**

* * *

Glaring down the delinquent highschoolers, Ichigo feels a twitch in her left eye as she shifts her bag to rest over her shoulder, not bothering to lift the foot she'd planted on one of their backs, sending a baleful stare into the wiggling figure beneath her until he stills, like prey before a predator.

Behind her stands the spirit of a little girl, and in front of her, a damaged memorial.

Kurosaki Ichigo, age 15, doesn't look like the kind of person one wants to run into in a situation like this. At 181cm and with the figure and fashion sense of a boy, her sour features and sharp, hawk-like amber gaze, it isn't so surprising that half the town is sure she's some kind of dangerous criminal. (Not that her tendency for violence helps that impression very much). Really, the only hint of femininity she displays is her hair, which is bright orange, with choppy bangs and the rest usually tied into a high ponytail, the strands reaching her mid-back at the longest point.

(Many have tried to yank her hair, both in and out of fights.

Many have received broken or sprained fingers and wrists, depending on the situation.)

When she lifts her eyes completely to look over the rest, she sees that they're surprisingly still lingering, maybe for their friend. Ichigo finally lifts her foot and kicks the guy in the ribs, sending him rolling on ahead.

"Don't run," she warns them all, and they freeze in place. "I've got a few _questions for you."_ She sees their lips move as they talk between themselves, but she isn't really listening to what they're saying. Lifting a hand, Ichigo points at the fallen memorial, the vase toppled over, spilling water and the few flowers inside onto the cement, the picture frame similarly toppled over. "Question one! Tell me what that is!" Her hand then swings around to point at the nearest upright guy.

"A-An offering to the kid who died here recently?" They offer uncertainly, looking uncertain and terrified.

"Correct!" She snaps, launching out with a kick that hits him in the solar plexus, causing him to choke on a scream and topple backwards. "Question two!" She turns furious eyes on the next guy, who is less than a foot away and looks terrified, hurriedly skittering back away from her and to his downed friends, neither of whom have gotten back up. "_Why is it knocked over?"_

"'C-Cause we knocked it over while we were skateboarding?" The first one she'd knocked down offers in a high tone, his eyes wide and teary as they look upon her. Mentally expanding her awareness, she takes note of where the little girl's ghost is before responding.

"I see. Now, can you tell me _why you haven't apologized to her?!" _She demands, launching a thumb over her shoulder towards the spirit as her awareness overtakes the girl, bringing her into view for the boys, who shriek like babies, babble apologies and run away like she's going to launch them into a wood chipper if they don't disappear _immediately_.

With a roll of her eyes, Ichigo turns to the little girl's spirit, who floats ever so slightly off the fence she's sitting on as she watches the proceedings with a tiny smile, blood covering the right side of her face from beneath her bangs from the head wound they're hiding from view, her hair tied into two pigtails.

"Thanks for chasing them away, nee-san," the girl thanks, and Ichigo offers her a twitch of the lips, turning on her heel and waving a hand up to wave over her shoulder.

"It wasn't any problem, thanks for cooperating at the end there. I'll bring you some new flowers and another vase tomorrow," she promises, heading the girl call out from behind her.

"Thanks, but don't worry about it too much, I can spend my time quietly now."

"Just hurry up and pass on, before something bad happens," she calls back before continuing on her way towards home. She's late, but it wasn't really her fault, as she'd had detention before she'd left school and come across those delinquents. She doesn't imagine that the bastard goat-chin will care though, so she's going to have to act fast when she opens the door.

Approaching the door to her house, she opens it, already dropping into a crouch as she calls out an, "I'm home!"

"_You're late!"_ As expected, there's her dead-beat dad, still dressed in his clinic uniform and launching at her with a leg outstretched as though to hit her in the head with a roundhouse kick. She's already managed to dodge it, at least, and dodges to the side to avoid the axe-kick his move morphs into, grabbing onto his ankle and then straightening to a stand, keeping hold of his leg and hoisting that into the equivalent of a splits.

She's able to press her leg against her body and do the splits, but she knows for a fact that he can't, and his squeak as she hoists the leg a little higher before releasing him and pushing him backwards the the ground, Ichigo rolls her eyes and walks completely into the house.

He recovers relatively quickly, at least enough to stand with his legs spread ever so slightly to account for the muscle strain she must have given him, both hands planted on his hips and face irritated.

"Do you know what time it is, you delinquent child of mine! You _know _dinner is every night at seven!"

"You shouldn't just attack me at whatever opportunity you get, you-"

"I won't hear any excuses! Any who disrupts the harmony of the home must be punished, and only payment of blood is acceptable!" She makes a point to ignore him and dodge what attacks she can, taking off her shoes and tossing them towards their area and then making her way into the kitchen ahead of him.

Catching sight of Karin and Yuzu sitting at the table, Ichigo offers them an apologetic look.

"Sorry I'm late, Yuzu-"

"Ah, Ichi-nee, you have another spirit," Yuzu points out with the serving spoon she's holding. Ichigo spins in place with a jolt to see the spirit of a middle-aged business man lurking just behind her, having probably been in her blind spot before now. With a snarl of annoyance, Ichigo lashes out with a fist, trying to drive away the spirit.

Her hand flies through him due to her high emotions and happens to hit her father in the face, sending him to the ground, not that she cares as she begins to rant.

"I drive them off again and again, but they keep comin' back," she complains before turning her attention to the man. "Just because I can see you doesn't mean I can pass you on, and your unfinished business changes nothing!"

"Bragging that you can see spirits again, Ichigo?!" Her father howls from the ground, thrashing about like a toddler throwing a tantrum, to her disgust.

"You can see them, touch them when you're calm enough, talk to them and you're a special A-level spirit medium. Your troubles are four-fold, Ichi-nee. Must be tough having high specs, huh?" Karin teases blandly around the chopsticks she's holding between her teeth.

"I'm actually kind of envious," Yuzu comments to Karin as, in the background, Ichigo continues to tell the spirit and her father to buzz off, with little success on either front. "I can only see a blur. I wish I could see them clearly."

"Not me. I don't believe in them, so it doesn't really matter to me."

"Huh? But you can see them, can't you?" Yuzu questions. "I thought only Daddy couldn't see them."

"_Stupid_, whether you can see them or not, as long as you don't believe in them, it's the same as them not existing," Karin scoffs before getting a proverbial light bulb moment. "Forget about that, I thought of a new project, listen. We can have Ichigo act like a psychic, since everyone knows she probably sees ghosts anyways-"

"Karin stop trying to make money off of me!" Ichigo yelps, looking back over her shoulder.

"_An opening!"_

She feels a heavy impact from behind, one hand being grabbed and twisted up from behind as she's placed into a suppression hold, one of his legs landing on the back of her neck and one on her actual back. With a snarl, Ichigo rotates her shoulder, ignoring the resulting pop, and twists her hips, freeing her arm and then launching her father backwards at the resulting force of her getting to her feet.

"Forget it. Yuzu, I'll come back down for leftovers later, sorry. I'm going to my room."

"Ah, Ichi-nee!" Ignoring the call and the loud conversation from below, Ichigo closes her room door- she doesn't slam it, because that would likely knock down the little "15" sign Yuzu had made her, and she doesn't want to break the ceramic on accident.

Sitting down at her desk and dropping her bag atop it, ignoring the continuously lurking spirit behind her, Ichigo pries it open and begins to pull out her homework with a scowl. There's a soft sound from nearby that calls for her attention, something just below her actual range of hearing, and she looks up in surprise and curiosity to see a black butterfly flutter its way through her wall.

"What? Where'd that-?"

Her words trail into nothing as, from the wall above her bed, a short, black-haired woman _(girl? Woman?)_ walks through her wall, dressed in a black _shihakusho_, a sword sheathed around her waist. She floats for an instant before tapping down onto the wood of her floor, her sandals clicking slightly.

"... It is near…!"

"Hey, what the hell are you?" Ichigo questions irritably, staring down the shorter girl who ignores her completely. She's dressed in all black, and she's pretty confident about being in Ichigo's room _while she's inside of it, _disregarding the fact that she'd somehow come through the wall. "_Hey!"_

Sick and tired of being ignored, Ichigo lashes out without thinking, a kick planting into the girl's back with an irritable growl.

"Stop ignoring me! The hell do you mean, _it is near?"_

"Y-you can see- you kicked-?" The girl's apparently too baffled to get up or speak coherently, causing Ichigo to roll her eyes.

"What else could have done it? Now what the hell are-" her door bursts open with a bang, and her father flies in out of nowhere with a drop kick.

"Be quiet! Stop making such a ruckus, the entire house can hear you!"

"A ruckus?! How can I not make a ruckus?!" Ichigo demands furiously, lashing out and elbowing her father in the jaw. A bit of blood spurts out from her lips in response, as he'd likely bitten his tongue, not that she really cares. "Something just walked through the wall, you can't see her?!"

"Eh?" He pauses, loosening from his fighting pose to scratch at his cheek. "See who? There's nothing there."

"I get it that she's short, but-"

"It's no use," the stranger denies, having gotten up and collected her cool in the time that Ichigo'd been chewing out the bastard. "It's not possible for ordinary men to see me. I'm a shinigami."

"A shini-" her father does something in the corner of her eye, and Ichigo lashes out with a kick into his sternum, sending him careening backwards and then she slams the door closed behind him, clicking down the lock. She turns back to the girl. "You're a shinigami, not just some jumped up ghost?" She questions with narrowed, slightly skeptical eyes.

"Yes. I'm a shinigami, from the _Seireitei_\- Soul Society. I'm hunting for a hollow, an evil spirit, and wound up here," the girl confirms in a tone that implies that she's "dumbing down" her explanation. Ichigo doesn't bother reacting to the insult, crossing her arms and shifting her hips and legs to continue to stare down the girl. "What? You see ghosts and don't believe in shinigami?" The girl questions defensively from where she'd taken a seat on the ground during her explanation.

"I've never seen any sign of shinigami anywhere, and I've been seeing ghosts for ages. The bastard didn't see you, so I can admit you're human, but I doubt that you're an actual shinigami."

"Oh?" Her tone is sugary-sweet, and Ichigo uncrosses her arms warily, staring down at the shorter girl as she shows signs of being incredibly irritated. "What nonsense." The girl spins in a sharp circle towards Ichigo, one hand lashing out to point at Ichigo with a shout_. "Bakudo number one: Sai!" _

Ichigo's arms are yanked behind her to cross at her wrists above her tailbone, shoulders wrenching back, and her ankles snap together simultaneously, knocking her down to the ground as her balance changes completely. Ichigo yelps and swears reflexively, held on the ground as she valiantly resists the urge to wiggle around like some kind of worm to escape.

"What the hell?" She demands as she hears the shorter girl walk closer, snickering under her breath just before she stomps on Ichigo's hip with one sandalled foot.

"You cannot move. This is called _Bakudo_, and it's an advanced incantation only shinigami can use," the girl explains smugly, and Ichigo angles her head to try and see the girl, though with her shoulder partially in the way, as she's on her side, it's a little difficult. "Even though I look so young, I'm almost ten times older than you are, and you dare imply that I'm a little brat? Usually, I'd kill people like you, but the law states that one cannot kill humans they have not been ordered to kill."

Her foot kicks lightly against Ichigo's back, rolling her almost entirely onto her stomach, and Ichigo hears a sound like what she'd expect a sword being unsheathed to sound like. Involuntarily, she freezes.

"I will have to be content with just sealing your movements, so give thanks, you little brat, and…" Ichigo sees a flash of metal before the hilt of the girl's sword comes down in one swift movement, hitting onto the spirit who'd also been bound by her spell.

"N-No, I… I don't want to go to hell-!"

"Do not fear," the girl says in a blandly serious tone. "The place you are headed to is not hell. It is soul society, and unlike hell, it is a beautiful place." A rift opens up beneath he and Ichigo, and while Ichigo stays in place above it as though it hadn't existed, the man falls through, a few more of those black swallowtails flutter out and then vanish into nothingness.

"W-what the hell? Where'd he go? Soul Society you said?"

"Yes. That was what's called a soul burial- also known as "_going to heaven"_. Doing that is one of the duties of a shinigami. Asking if you believe me or not is useless at this point, right? But I will kindly explain everything with illustrations even a brat like you can understand." She reaches into her _shihakusho_ with a deadly serious expression. "So shut up and listen. In this world, there are two types of spirits."

The girl (_woman_?) sits down in seiza, pulling out a sketchbook and drawing on it.

"One is called Plus and is the most common spirit." The drawing is that of a rabbit head, surrounded by hearts and tiny dots. "You can say that the "ghosts" you usually see are these." She then points to another image, of an angry looking bear head surrounded by lightning. "And the other is called Hollows, and these attack living beings and dead ones alike, and eat their souls. These are what you call "evil spirits". Do you have any questions so far?"

"Why are you drawing all of this out? Your drawings suck." With an irritated snarl, the girl crawls forward and draws on her face.

"Invalid question. I'm going to continue." She leans back on her legs to sketch out some more things, but Ichigo ignores them this time, rubbing her face against the ground and her shoulder to hopefully wipe off the marker definitely on her face. "One is to guide Pluses to soul society using soul burial as you have seen, and the second is to extinguish hollows. My current mission is the latter."

"There's a hollow thing _around here?"_ Ichigo's mind rolls around on the last few minutes frantically. "You said it's nearby, so why are you _here?!"_

"Well… I don't know why, but I can't sense it anywhere nearby."

"The hell does that mean?!" Her heart leaps into her throat, though, as there's a loud, rattling howl from nearby.

"It's as though there's some great pressure blocking all of my senses," the girl muses.

"Hey! Hey, shinigami, _are you deaf?!_ Didn't you hear that howl just now?!"

"Huh? Howl? When did-?" She cuts herself off as the echoes of the howl reverberate through the room, and she turns with a shocked look on her face. Ichigo scowls and begins to strain her limbs, uneasy about the is a of being restrained when there's such a clear threat nearby. The shinigami looks at her searchingly.

She doesn't want to be trapped if something happens, so she continues to test out the invisible bindings, feeling absolutely no give.

As though to mock her, downstairs, Ichigo hears a scream of pain and terror. With a cold, very still feeling spreading through her bones, everything going silent except for the echoes of that scream in her head, Ichigo feels like she can't even move to breathe.

_That's Yuzu's voice._

The shinigami runs to the door and Ichigo is still frozen solid, unable to speak, until the black-clad figure opens up her bedroom door. Like a rush of something invisible, not substantial enough for Ichigo to feel it, the girl's hair and clothes get blown back and an oppressive feeling fill the air.

She steps out, and Ichigo can hear the sound of something dragging.

"Ichi…. You… okay?"

_Karin?_

Her little sister comes into view in the doorway, on the ground, an injury leaking blood above one eye and body trembling.

"Good… it hasn't come here." Ichigo can't look at anything other than Karin, feeling like her entire body is stone, her ears somehow hearing only her little sister's voice. "It happened so suddenly… Blood started pouring out of Daddy's back, and he fell… and we were attacked by something huge… I thought that I had.. To warn you…"

Karin goes limp on the ground, but continue to speak.

"I wonder what it is… I could see it a little. It looked like they couldn't. Ichi, before it sees you… hurry and get away." The shinigami crouches next to her sister's figure as she goes completely limp and her eyes close, and Ichigo feels something worse than terror filling up in her heart at the sight of a _shinigami above her sister's still form_, all of her anger and negative emotions falling away into an empty pit.

That. Is. _It._

"She is just unconscious, her soul is still- _what are you doing?!_" Ichigo doesn't know what she's doing. She doesn't feel like she's in control of her body right now. She just knows that_ laying here on the ground is not an option._ "Stop! You can't just get free of that! If you force it, your soul will-"

And then she's free, and her hand lashes out to grab the bat she always keeps near her door, her legs moving before she can really think twice about it. She's in control now, but everything feels so far away, so distant. Avoiding her sister's body on the ground, Ichigo launches herself down the stairs until she gets to the door to the living room, spotting the shattered drywall before anything else.

Trashed bowls, crumpled table. Splintered furniture, a gaping hole in the wall. The bastard off to one side, apparently unconscious, blood spattered over his back and the wall, pooling just slightly on the ground.

In the hole in the wall, there's some kind of monster. Bone white all over, covered in black markings, with a terrible mask, fin on its back and a gaping mouth. She can't tell if the eye markings on the mask are actually it's eyes, but if the glow is any indication, they probably are. At first she can see only one arm, her entire mind silent as she takes everything in and tries not to explode from overload, but then the other arm comes into focus, holding onto the limp figure of her little sister like a child does a toy.

"Yuzu?!"

_"Ichigo-!"_

She's running before she can really register it, and she manages to avoid the attack it makes towards her with one of its hands, slamming the bat onto the wrist with as much force as she can. The bat splinters into pieces, and the monster doesn't seem to notice, swiping her out of the way and slamming her into the ground.

One hand wrapped around the shattered bat, Ichigo is dazed for a moment before she manages to open her eyes and witness the monster lifting the hand still holding onto Yuzu, as though to smush her like a bug.

From this position, she can clearly see the gaping hole in it's chest, perfectly circular.

And then it's knocked aside, that shinigami flying in from the side and slicing into it's forearm with her unsheathed blade. Ichigo gets the feeling of being looked over and then the monster shrieks in agony, the hand rearing back and releasing it's prisoner, sending Yuzu flying through the air.

Panicking, emotions rushing full force to the surface once more as everything seems to get louder and speed up around her even though she knows it's all the same, Ichigo tosses aside the shattered, useless weapon and reaches up, body providing a stopped for Yuzu's own.

Her little sister's limp figure hits her in the chest with enough force that Ichigo almost falls, but she manages to catch her completely. Looking her sister over and pressing one hand to her neck while the other braces her close, Ichigo feels a pulse and something releases her heart from it's vice like grip.

"Do not lose focus, boy!" The shinigami snaps, and Ichigo doesn't waste any time to feel annoyed about someone mistaking her gender again, because the shinigami is still speaking. Ichigo wants to take Yuzu inside, out of the line of fire, but with that monster _(hollow?)_ still right across from them, she doesn't want to risk moving out from behind the cover the shinigami is so thoughtfully providing with her own body. "None of your family members have had their souls eaten!"

"If hollows attack people for their souls, then why did it attack my family?!" Ichigo demands, curiosity rearing its head even now.

"... Hollows wander searching for souls with high spiritual concentration. For that, random humans are sometimes attacked. And… I have never seen or heard of a human that can see shinigami, and break out of _bakudo_ on their own, or a human with such high spiritual concentration as you… so it was probably targeting you."

"... My fault?" It's like that black hole is back, familiar in its intensity _(my fault? my fault again?)_ swallowing up everything in her chest as this shinigami tells her that it's her fault her family might just die tonight.

"I didn't mean-" The hollow lashes out as the shinigami turns reflexively, as though this isn't the middle of a fight, and gets swatted aside into a wall with a crunch that would have had Ichigo wince if she wasn't locking eyes with something that can definitely kill her and her sister still in her lap without even trying. She hears a scramble from the shinigami's direction and as the monster reels back to stand solidly on its hind legs, Ichigo deposits her sister to the side, not once looking away from the monster before her.

Pushing to a stand, watching as it follows her movements, she steps back and away from her sister's unconscious body, moving her out of the line of fire, and then it lunges with a speed she could have dodged, but dodging isn't what she wants to do right now.

She's going to try and jump on its head, maybe pry-

The shinigami appears between it and she, and it's teeth close down around her torso with a spray of blood and a sickening sound. The hollow jerks backwards immediately upon receiving a stab to it's head from the shinigami, and paces backwards down the street, shaking it's head like a dog.

"I am… I am no longer able to fight the hollow. Now, all of us can only wait… and it will come back to make us food." Ichigo feels a helpless anger growing in her chest again, looking away from the collapsed and injured figure of the shinigami until she's looking at her sister. Vaguely, she's kind of hoping that if it eats her, it will go away from her sisters, wander off and forget about them.

But they can see spirits, the both of them. And eventually, something will come for them, as well. And she can't just leave her sister's to fend for themselves, so as she straightens out her posture and looks back at the monster down the road, Ichigo knows she's going to continue to try to fight it.

She isn't sure if it's got a spine, but a broken neck just might be distracting enough so she could force it away, at least?

"Do you want to save your family?" The shinigami asks, hauling herself up to sit against the wall. Ichigo's head swings around instantly to look at the girl, meeting her dark eyes with her own.

"Is there a way?! Tell me!"

"There is a way… No, to be exact, I should say there is only one way." She unsheathes her sword and braces it against her ground and her side, holding it up point first towards Ichigo with a serious expression. "You become a shinigami."

With an uneasy glance towards where the hollow continues to lurk, still upset about it's head wound, Ichigo feels like this needs to hurry up, but she can't just rush into this.

"Pierce the middle of your chest with this _zanpakuto_ and I will insert half of my shinigami power into you through it. That way, you will have the power to fight the hollow, if on;y temporarily. The percentage of success if not high, if it fails, you will die. However, there is no other way-"

"Yeah," Ichigo walks closer and kneels down so the point is resting above her heart more easily, reaching down towards the hilt with one of her hands. "Yeah, alright, shinigami. Let's do this."

"It is not "shinigami". It is Kuchiki Rukia."

"I'm Kurosaki Ichigo. Let's not die, right?" Ichigo offers as she hears Yuzu saying something from behind her, but she can't give her sister attention right now. The hollow is starting to approach now. It isn't moving quickly, probably assuming they're easy pickings now, but she can't be distracted right now.

The monster roared from a distance, beginning to speed up as Kuchiki Rukia braced the sword hilt against her chest before Ichigo yanked on the hilt.

She'd been expecting some resistance, and some help from the shinigami, but all Kuchiki seemed to be doing was holding onto the hilt, and Ichigo was the one doing all of the work, bolstering up all of her emotions and resolution and driving the sword through her chest with all the strength she can manage.

It's startling how difficult it is to do, but she does it without hesitation or pause, and then some sort of pressure she hadn't noticed releases. Everything seems to go colourless and quiet, Ichigo's eyes locking onto the rushing hollow. Her brain moves at such a rate that everything seems slow or still, but Ichigo knows for certain that it hasn't actually done so, and Ichigo hefts the weight in her hands. A glance down reveals a sword, with a thick metal blade as long as her body and as wide as her head, looking like a mix between a knife and a katana.

She doesn't think on it too long, the hollow is reaching for them now, and her hand jerks up and around, slicing through the thick arm of the hollow with enough ease that she stumbles, though she ends up a few feet away from where she'd been standing in that instant of movement.

Pushing down the incredulity, Ichigo turns in place, ignoring Kuchiki's expression and muttered words as she turns her attention to the hollow more completely. Hauling her sword up over her shoulder, taking care to notice that she's placing the flat of the blade against her shoulder, and then rushing forward towards the hollow as it turns towards her.

The hollow rushes towards her again, head and shoulders pushed low for easier access to her to bite or attack, but that gives her a free shot at the hollow. Stepping to the side just in time to avoid the attack, Ichigo swings down with force at its neck and head at an angle, slicing through both in one movement.

She stumbles as the hollow _disintegrates_ once she's sliced through that, not expecting the sudden disappearance of something around her blade, and she almost drops the weapon before she recovers with a stumble, lifting it almost subconsciously to fit into the sheath on her back before moving towards Yuzu and the shinigami, who're both unconscious.

There's also her body on the ground, blood staining it's chest and the ground around it, but she's going to ignore that for the moment.

Picking up Yuzu and holding onto her like she's a toddler, Ichigo shifts her arm a little experimentally, vaguely relieved that she can't feel her muscles straining like they normally would be, and then she looks over at Kuchiki. She's only just a little taller than her little sisters, and she's pretty lean, so…

"She _did _save my life, and the lives of my family."

With a sigh, Ichigo turns to walk back into the house, depositing Yuzu onto the kitchen counter gently before turning back to go and collect Rukia, lifting her into a princess carry and taking her inside, pausing when something brushes against the back of my awareness.

Turning, Ichigo looks over the ends of the road to try and find whatever's looking at her, but can't see anything. Twitching uneasily, she hoists the injured shinigami a little more securely into her arms and takes her inside to also rest her on a counter, turning back immediately to grab her body from the ground, pulling herself easily into the house and laying her body on the floor before turning towards the clinic, where the door is swinging ever so slightly from its hinges,

Time for some mass emergency care.


End file.
